The rest of us joined my parents, Tamantha, and Shadow in the back yard for a breather and to admire Dad’s yard work. Apparently I’d let spring deadlines whoosh past.
The yard did look trimmer. Happier somehow, too.
Mike excused himself, muttering something about facilities, though I’d bet the buffet remainders also drew him.
After a while, Tamantha went inside to pack her bag.
Returning, I discovered Dad and Tom in a technical discussion about tools and tractors. Mom and Diana compared notes on flowers.
A few minutes of that and the buffet remainders started whispering to me, too.
I went into the house and met Mike, coming around the corner into the living area.
“Hey.”
“Hey yourself.”
He leaned against the wall. “I was thinking about our talk — the family ranch. How to explain… When family members feel the same about a family ranch, it’s a bond that burrows deeper than the roots of any tree. But when the feelings are different, it’s like a chasm you try to bridge.”
He hitched one shoulder, proclaiming an unknown result. He was talking about his family as much as the family ranch.
“Standing at the old place that day I told you about, it was weird,” he continued. “I knew trying to put the place back together would be trying to rewind time, going back to what was.
“In the end, I wanted a place here, a part of Cottonwood County. But I could satisfy that itch while moving forward, not back.”
I patted his arm, feeling the strength there.
My hand slid down his arm. Our hands tangled, then caught. Our gazes met as we neared. Then his gaze dropped to my mouth.
Our lips touched as we drew closer and closer, arms encircling, heat building—
“Stop that.”
* * * *
I came out of the kiss first at that peremptory voice. Mike still had his arms around me, leaning in to resume the kiss.
So I saw the puzzled expression cross his face close-up. He looked down, over his arm, which wrapped around my shoulder and back.
I also looked over his muscled arm and saw the person who went with the voice I’d recognized. Tamantha.
“Did you hit me?” he asked her as I stepped back from his embrace.
“Yes. You’re trying to steal my daddy’s girlfriend. You’re supposed to be his friend.”
“I am his friend. And I’m not trying to steal Elizabeth.” He still had one hand splayed on my back.
“Stealing is for possessions, Tamantha. People shouldn’t ever possess other people.” Ethical and moral matters represented the easy route at the moment and that’s the one I took.
“Your dad and I are both dating Elizabeth.” Mike seemed to think that took care of everything.
It didn’t.
“I don’t get it,” Tamantha informed us with deep disapproval.
Mike opened his mouth. I waited for the words that would wrap up this awkward situation neatly. He closed his mouth.
Finally, he did speak. “You know, Tamantha, I don’t really get it, either. This is Elizabeth’s idea.”
“Hey.”
“It’s true.”
“That doesn’t mean…” How could I finish that? That doesn’t mean you have to rat me out to a soon-to-be-fourth-grader?
“Why?” she demanded of me.
“To get to know each other better. That’s what grownups do. We get real busy with work and other things, so we make special times to get together to relax, to talk, to spend time together—”
Tom came in the back door and stopped, his gaze going from his daughter, to Mike and me, and back.
“—to take our time to get to know each other better and they’re called dates.”
“I know what dates are,” she said scornfully. “Sally’s parents do it and it’s not to get to know each other better. It’s so they can make out in the car and not have the kids bug them.”
“Tamantha.”
Her father’s mild scold had less impact than it might have because I asked a question before he could say any more.
“Sally told you that?”
“No,” she said, still in scorn mode. “We saw them. And he had his hand inside her shirt.”
“Tamantha.” No question, Tom meant that one.
“He did. And she had hers—”
“Not. Another. Word.” He held his daughter’s gaze. Slowly, she closed her mouth. “You know what privacy is and Sally’s parents deserve theirs. You should not have gone spying—”
“We weren’t spying. We just happened to go through the garage.”
That seemed reasonable to me. But Tom’s austere frown remained. “Just happened?”
Tamantha looked away.
Score one for Tom. Actually, score two. One over Tamantha. One over me because he’d spotted the truth and I hadn’t.
“In the future, you will avoid just happening to intrude on people’s privacy. And should you happen to accidentally witness something that’s private, you will not share it with others. Understood?”
Her usual laser focus had returned to her father. “What if I witness something private, but someone’s doing something wrong? Because that’s what you all do. I know all about that. You find out about things other people want to keep private and bad things they do in private and then you get them sent to jail.”
How did she know about that? Who on earth blabbed about our murder inquiries to a kid.
“And then Elizabeth and Mike go on TV about it.”
Oh.
We were the blabbers.
“If you witness someone doing something wrong, in private or not, you come and tell me immediately. I’ll handle it. That’s a father’s job. Not yours. Understood?”
“Well, It’s sort of Sergeant Shelton’s job, too.”
I bit the inside of my lip. Mike’s eyes were dancing. How I wish Wayne Shelton could know he’d been demoted to sort of in Tamantha’s organizational chart.
But Tom remained focused and steady. “If you can’t reach me, you can tell Sergeant Shelton.”
“Elizabeth, too? Because she’s on TV about it. And Mike.”
“Elizabeth, too. And Mike,” he agreed.
I no longer felt like laughing. More like I’d just been sworn in as some sort of law enforcement officer. And not voluntarily.
“Diana?”
That had a one-more-drink-of-water-before-I-go-to-sleep ring to it.
“Tamantha.”
“Okay.”
“Okay, what?” Tom asked.
That prompt for her to add a “sir” to her response seemed unlike him and unlike their relationship.
“Okay, I am not to just happen to see people in private unless I really can’t help it. But if I do see somebody in private doing something wrong, I’m not to talk to people about it, except you. Or Sergeant Shelton. Or Elizabeth or Mike. Or Diana.”
I’d missed the boat on his Okay, what? He’d been going for something with far broader applications than an added sir. But that meant I had been right about my interpretation of it not being like their relationship.
Tamantha drew in a breath and added, “But they can’t put it on TV. And he can’t kiss Elizabeth anymore.”
* * * *
Tom took Tamantha out on the back steps for a discussion.
Mike said he was going to say hello to the Undlins.
Very tactful. He was right. I needed a few moments alone.
Tamantha had seen Mike and me kiss. Awkward, but not the end of the world. Tom had handled it calmly.
Of course he and Mike certainly knew I was kissing the other one.
It can’t stay the same…. I don’t want to lose either one.
I went upstairs. From a chair overlooking the back yard, I watched Tom go into the garage.
Restlessly, I revisited earlier material Jennifer had sent. The gap in Furman York’s timeline from his not-guilty to arriving at the Lukasik Ranch mocked me.
Tom didn’t come out of the garage.
Another pass through the timeline didn’t change a darned thing. The gap remained.
And Tom remained in the garage.
I went downstairs.